System and method for realizing utility cost savings

ABSTRACT

A pre-defined cost savings benefit is provided to a guest as a function of an amount of a calculated cost savings that can be attributed to the guest during a period of occupancy by the guest. Utility cost saving are tracked in real-time during the period of guest occupancy and the guest will be able to use a device to visualize the utility cost savings that are being realized during this period. By being able to view the utility cost savings being realized in real-time, the guest will be incentivized to directly engage in a utility cost savings effort for the personal benefit of the guest which will, in turn, benefit the hotel.

BACKGROUND

Existing hotel, energy management systems are designed to reduce costsassociated with the usage of one or more utilities. However, gueststypically do not directly benefit from any cost savings that might berealized from the use of such systems. Accordingly, guests are generallynot incentivized to assist the hotel in using such systems in a mannerthat will achieve, let alone maximize, the cost savings such systems areintended to provide.

SUMMARY

To address this and other concerns, the following generally describes asystem and method for reducing costs associated with the usage of one ormore utilities. Generally, the system and method functions to provide apre-defined cost savings benefit to a guest as a function of an amountof a calculated cost savings that can be attributed to the guest duringa period of occupancy by the guest at a hotel. To this end, the systemand method will track utility cost saving in real-time during the periodof occupancy by the guest. In addition, the system and method will allowthe guest to use a device to visualize the utility cost savings that arebeing realized by the hotel during this period. By being able to viewthe utility cost savings being realized in real-time, the guest will beincentivized to directly engage in a utility cost savings effort for thepersonal benefit of the guest which will, in turn, benefit the hotel.Upon check-out of the hotel by the guest, the final calculated value ofthe utility cost savings during the period of occupancy will be utilizedto determine the amount of the benefit that is to be given to the guest.

While the foregoing provides a general overview of a system and methodfor realizing utility cost savings, a better understanding of theobjects, advantages, features, properties and relationships of thesubject system and method will be obtained from the following detaileddescription and accompanying drawings which set forth illustrativeembodiments and which are indicative of the various ways in which theprinciples of the invention hereinafter claimed may be employed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a better understanding of the various aspects of the invention,reference may be had to preferred embodiments shown in the attacheddrawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates an example system for realizing utility cost savings;and

FIG. 2 illustrates an example method for realizing utility cost savings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

With reference to FIG. 1, there is illustrated an example system 10 forrealizing utility cost savings. Generally, the system includes one ormore meters 12 for measuring usage of a utility, such as electric, gas,water, or the like. The one or more meters 12 are associated with alodging, such as a room of a hotel/motel, a rental property, etc.(herein collectively referred to as a “hotel room”) in which a guestwill stay for a period of time. Within the system 10, the meters 12 willbe in communication with one or more administration computer/serversystems 14 having one or more associated data repositories 14A. As willbe appreciated, the communicative connection between the meter 12 andthe administration system 14 may be a wired connection, a wirelessconnection, or a combination thereof. In addition, the communicativeconnection can be in the form of a local area network (“LAN”), wide areanetwork (“WAN”), or a combination thereof. Furthermore, thecommunicative connection between the meter 12 and the administrationsystem 14 may be a direct connection or may be an indirect connectionusing one or more intermediate devices. As will be discussed in greaterdetail below, it is by use of this communicative connection that theadministration system 14 will receive from the meter 12 data that isindicative of utility usage by a guest during their stay in a hotelroom.

As further illustrated in FIG. 1, the system 10 will include one or moredevices 16 having installed thereon software, such as an “app,” forallowing a guest to view information indicative of the utility costsassociated with their stay in the hotel room. The device 16 willpreferably be a mobile device such that the guest will be enabled toview, in near real-time and from a multitude of locations, informationindicative of utility costs and/or utility costs savings that (andreward amounts) are currently being realized by the guest during theirstay. In addition, the software may provide a user interface that allowsa user to control utility settings, e.g., to view and set a current orupcoming HVAC temperature setting or the like. In another example, suchuser interfaces may be accessed via kiosks that are dispersed around ahotel property, a television in the guest room, and/or other devicesthat could be connected to the administration system 14. Such devicesmay be used alternatively or in addition to mobile devices within thesystem. As with the meters 12, the device 16 will be in communicationwith the administration system 14 and the communicative connectionbetween the device 16 and the administration system 14 may be a wiredconnection, a wireless connection, or a combination thereof and can bein the form of a local area network (“LAN”), wide areas network (“WAN”),or a combination thereof. Furthermore, in the event a device 16 is to beprovided utility control capabilities, the device 16 may be providedwith software to allow the device 16 to communicate with theadministration system 14 to indirectly control a utility systemassociated with the hotel room or may be provided with software (and theappropriate communication hardware) to directly communicate with andcontrol the utility system associated with the hotel room.

While not illustrated, the system 10 may also be communicatively coupledto a computer system associated with a provider of a utility. In thismanner, the system 10 may receive from the utility provider computersystem the rates associated with using the utility, e.g., cost for kWhof electricity usage, cost for ft³ of gas or water usage, etc. Such rateinformation can be provided to the administration system 14 for use bythe administration system 14 in calculating utility usage costs or maybe provided to the meter 12 (or associated utility system) for use bythe meter 12 (or associated utility system) in calculating utility usagecosts (provided the meters/utility systems are provided with software toperform such functionality). In the event the meter 12 (or associatedutility system) is used to calculate utility usage costs, the meter 12(or associated utility system) would provide the calculated utilityusage costs to the administration system 14 for further use ashereinafter described. The utility usage rates may be providedby/retrieved from the utility provider computer system as needed. Itwill also be appreciated that, in some systems, the meter 12 may reportutility usage to the utility provider computer system whereupon the costassociated with utility usage may be provided by/retrieved from theutility provider computer system in near real-time for use by the system10 as described below.

Within the system 10, the administration system 14 will store data inthe associated data repository 14A in a manner that functions tocross-reference information that is representative of the guest, thehotel room in which the guest is staying, the utilities that areassociated with the hotel room, and utility costs incurred by the guestduring their stay in the hotel room. By way of example only, theadministration system 14 may store data in the data repository 14A thatuniquely identifies the guest, data that uniquely identifies the roomthe guest is occupying, data that uniquely identifies each utility meterthat is associated with the room, utility rate-based cost data, datathat is read from/provided by each utility meter, data that identifiesthe guest check-in time, data that identifies the guest check-out time,calculated results information, and the like. As will be appreciated, atleast the data that is read from/provided by each utility meter may bestored with a time stamp to allow the system to determine utility costinformation that is reflective of utility usage between the guestcheck-in time and the guest check-out time. In addition, the databaseassociated with the administration system 14 may store actual historicalutility usage information and/or desired utility usage information foruse in calculating utility cost savings as described further below. Forsecurity purposes, the database may also store information that allowsthe system to access device 16 and/or that will have to be provided bythe guest before the guest is provided access to the system 10 by use ofdevice 16. It will be further appreciated that the system 10 mayfunction to block the guest from using a device 16 to at least changeany settings associated with a room at the time of guest check-out.

Turning to FIG. 2, in an example operation of the system 10, theadministration system 14 may periodically issue requests to a meter 12to acquire utility meter readings. The frequency of such requests canrange from around 1 second to around 1 minute. The administration system14 will then use the received data to determine changes in the utilitymeter readings from the time of check-in by the guest and will use thedetermined changes and utility rate information to calculate the utilitycosts that are associated with the guest's stay. As will be appreciated,the change in the utility meter reading at the time of guest check-inwill be zero. The calculated utility costs would then be comparedagainst expected utility costs (which may be actual historical costs) todetermine any cost savings. The determined costs savings (and or anyother information) may then be pushed to the device 16 or otherwiseretrieved by the guest using device 16 as desired.

By way of further example, the administration system 14 may periodicallycalculate and update the utility cost savings S—defined as the amount ofutility cost saving for a guest during the period of their stay—usingthe following procedures in which:

A_(i) represents the initial utility meter reading at time of check-infor meter A, e.g., an electric meter having an operating rate of AR;

B_(i) represents the initial utility meter reading at time of check-infor meter B, e.g., a water meter having an operating rate of BR;

C_(i) represents the initial utility meter reading at time of check-infor meter C, e.g., a gas meter having an operating rate of CR;

A_(n) represents a utility meter reading at a periodic time aftercheck-in for meter A;

B_(n) represents a utility meter reading at a periodic time aftercheck-in for meter B;

C_(n) represents a utility meter reading at a periodic time aftercheck-in for meter C; and

S_(e) represents the expected utility costs at the time T_(n) of aperiodic meter reading.A _(change) =A _(n) −A _(i)  (1)B _(change) =B _(n) −B _(i)  (2)C _(change) =C _(n) −C _(i)  (3)Total Utility Cost TUC _(n) at time T _(n)=(A _(change) ×AR)+(B_(change) ×BR)+(C _(change) ×CR)  (4)S _(n) =S _(e) −TUC _(n)  (5)Thus, when T_(n) is the time of guest check-out, the value S_(n) will bereflective of the total costs savings realized by the guest during theirstay in the hotel room.

With respect to the expected utility cost, this value can be based on ahistorical value, such as an average utility cost associated with aparticular guest room over time, an historical utility cost associatedwith a particular guest room considering the same conditions that areassociated with the current guest stay, e.g., outside temperature, acost estimate provided by the manufacturer of the utility system, or thelike as desired.

To further incentivize the guest to realize a highest level of costsavings, the guest is preferably provided with a percentage of anyrealized cost saving S_(n). The dollar (or other applicable currency)value of the percentage of the cost saving S_(n) may be provided to theguest by being removed from their bill at time of check-out, may beprovided to the guest as reward points, may be provided to the guest ascredit for use in a future stay, or the like without limitation.

While various concepts have been described in detail, it will beappreciated by those skilled in the art that various modifications andalternatives to those concepts could be developed in light of theoverall teachings of the disclosure. Further, while described in thecontext of functional modules and illustrated using block diagramformat, it is to be understood that, unless otherwise stated to thecontrary, one or more of the described functions and/or features may beintegrated in a single physical device and/or a software module, or oneor more functions and/or features may be implemented in separatephysical devices or software modules. It will also be appreciated that adetailed discussion of the actual implementation of each module is notnecessary for an enabling understanding of the invention. Rather, theactual implementation of such modules would be well within the routineskill of an engineer, given the disclosure herein of the attributes,functionality, and inter-relationship of the various functional modulesin the system. Therefore, a person skilled in the art, applying ordinaryskill, will be able to practice the invention set forth in the claimswithout undue experimentation. It will be additionally appreciated thatthe particular concepts disclosed are meant to be illustrative only andnot limiting as to the scope of the invention which is to be given thefull breadth of the appended claims and any equivalents thereof.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system, comprising: an administration server; acontroller for an HVAC system communicatively coupled to theadministration server; a display device communicatively coupled to theadministration server; and at least one utility meter associated withthe HVAC system communicatively coupled to the administration server;wherein the administration server has programming that causes theadministration server to: determine a time of a guest check-in at alodging; receive from the at least one utility meter data indicative ofutility usage at the time of the guest check-in; periodically receivefrom the at least one utility meter data indicative of utility usagesubsequent to the time of the guest check-in; use the data indicative ofutility usage subsequent to the time of the guest check-in and the dataindicative of utility usage at the time of the guest check-in tocalculate a periodic amount of cost savings being realized by the guest;provide to the display device the calculated cost savings realized bythe guest; receive from the display device a setting for the HVACsystem; control the controller for the HVAC system in response toreceiving from the display device the setting for the HVAC system; andin response to the administration server receiving data indicative ofthe guest checking-out from the lodging, preventing the display devicefrom being used by the guest to provide any further settings for theHVAC system.
 2. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein theadministration server has further programming that causes theadministration server to determine a time of the guest check-out of thelodging, receive from the at least one utility meter data indicative ofutility usage at the time of the guest check-out, use the dataindicative of utility usage at the time of the guest check-out and thedata indicative of utility usage at the time of the guest check-in tocalculate a final amount of cost savings that was realized by the guest,and to cause a benefit to be provided to the guest as a function of thecalculated final amount of cost savings that was realized by the guest.3. The system as recited in claim 2, wherein the benefit provided to theguest comprises a reduction in a hotel bill by a percentage amount ofthe calculated final amount of cost savings that was realized by theguest.
 4. The system as recited in claim 3, wherein the benefit providedto the guest comprises an addition to a reward points account that isreflective of a percentage amount of the calculated final amount of costsavings that was realized by the guest.
 5. The system as recited inclaim 1, wherein the at least one utility meter comprises an electricmeter.
 6. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the at least oneutility meter comprises a gas meter.
 7. The system as recited in claim1, wherein the administration server is communicatively coupled to autility service provider computer system for receiving from the utilityservice provider system utility usage rate data and wherein theadministration server uses the utility usage rate data when calculatingthe periodic amount of cost savings being realized by the guest.
 8. Thesystem as recited in claim 1, wherein the administration server uses ahistorical, calculated utility usage cost associated with the lodgingwhen calculating the periodic amount of cost savings being realized bythe guest.
 9. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein theadministration server uses a utility service provider determined utilityusage cost when calculating the periodic amount of cost savings beingrealized by the guest.
 10. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein thedisplay device comprises a mobile phone.
 11. The system as recited inclaim 1, wherein the display device comprises a kiosk.
 12. The system asrecited in claim 1, wherein the display device comprises a television.13. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the lodging comprises ahotel room.